Meet Our Team

Jay Zerwekh, MHSAPresident and Chief Operating OfficerJay Zerwekh has recently joined CHESS as Interim President and Chief Operating Officer. Jay brings 30+ years of experience in health care, managed care and population health management to CHESS, having served in executive roles at large health systems, ambulatory group practices, startup organizations and health plans. He has a deep knowledge of various risk sharing arrangements, as well as group practice management and network development. As President and COO, Jay will help CHESS expand its leadership position in the population health management space.

Mark LautzenheiserChief Financial Officer
Serving as Chief Financial Officer for CHESS, Mark Lautzenheiser not only focuses on the financial management of the company, but also provides financial and analytical expertise to our clients. Mark joined the CHESS team in February 2015 with over 16 years of experience in healthcare analytics. The data and financial analytic reports that Mark provides plays a key role in determining the current and future health care spend for each of our clients, allowing them to see the impact, both in quality and in cost, their value-based initiatives have on their health system, ensuring they achieve the maximum benefit for their ACO.

Karen Cannon, MDChief Medical Operations Officer
Dr. Karen Cannon serves as the Chief Medical Operations Officer for CHESS, a role designed to provide operational support for CHESS clients as they move along their journey to value. Formerly the Clinical Documentation Improvement Officer for CHESS and Cornerstone Health Care, PA., Dr. Cannon led multiple initiatives in clinical documentation and coding. This expertise will prove invaluable to our clients, as education and assistance in these important arenas are critical to a successful transformation to value-based medicine.

James Hoekstra, MD Chief Business Development OfficerDr. Hoekstra brings to CHESS a wealth of clinical and business development experience. In addition to serving as Wake Forest Baptist Health’s Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine, he is responsible for driving WFBH’s external growth strategies, facilitating the enterprise’s strategic planning efforts and serving in a leadership role in organizational throughput and performance improvement initiatives.

Katie HenryGeneral Counsel
Katie joined CHESS in March 2013 after being in the private practice of law for 15 years. Prior to joining CHESS (and its sister company, Cornerstone Health Care) as General Counsel/Chief Compliance & Patient Safety Officer, Katie was the Managing Partner at Horton & Henry PLLC. There, she focused her practice on the defense of physicians in Medical Negligence cases as well as matters pending before the North Carolina Medical Board.